FASHION IN THE PURSUITS OF WOMEN.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10422, 12 August 1899, Page 7

FASHION IN THE PURSUITS OF WOMEN.

I%'ti course, be said tliai the chief pur<>fc women relates to man. Without ?>og to dispute that position, we may W»t we refer to the other pursuit*. BJ primal conditions there were many *«ttry and irksome distinctions made *W men and women. It is suspected wey may even have had dialects sacred jsk*ex—not a bad method of abridging **nte and curtain kctures. But long **n f thinking there might be compen- , *ppeaxs to have consented to a comnecesetties of nature, and the more §M|fP* ia itnre divisions of labour remain, fixed. *"* worJc P^^aP ß justified a difclotllil, 8- So far Nature. Then I^IIIl?* ,1 -™ 11 * o,ll ' th& arbitrary of tyrants. lltS*^ 1 ttay eV<Jn ovflt " rule Nature hmelf> , !* decreed that man should be the hairy 1 ■' **^o> l step* in and crops his hair* /"* *****d> while happy is the 11 wJ »« trosses fall to her feet—withe *P*«iaUy tyrawnifies over woman, owee its strength largely to her '£3w^\ '•* tt PP° rt, I* ie fashion, largely woman's Im^^l*^^ 011 ' which has imposed npon her of the disabilities for which tne woman have blamed their innocent and lllii^'' , ** 0, ** rot^er » man« !» iflnetration let it be noted that it i» into the |||||$ ;««sient Red established puwuite of in work or play, tztat woman BflKv*. *fi«jlb*ie 'pu»h J»r «w*y. of recent origin there i« no barhw,

If we tarn from sport to work, we find the game principle in operation. When new in* ventaons, such as the telephone and the typewriter, open new fields woman stepped into a full share of the work. She was there at the start again. Let her, however, show a desire to enter some calling long monopolised by men and she meets resistance. It was, perhaps, on thi* principle, that aboriginal woman in all savage lands secured the right to smoke. The natives at first saw no white women,'but only men. They knew not that smoking was sacred to men, and as the dark woman was there at the start she secured equal rignjs.xfTMultitudee of white women smoke, and while there is no reason in nature why they should not do so equally with men, there is a very strong protest on the part of the majority of both sexes.

It appears that woman is reaching a stage of evolution, in which she will scan more and more closely every ancient custom and fashion which iwposes upon her any serious limitation of scope. In the distant future probably no differences between the sexes save those which arise strictly from nature will continue. There have long been "women who did"; path-finders, pioneers, "breaking their birth's invidious bar and grappling with their evil star." A* the years go on this sort comes thicker and thicker, and resistance generally proves futile. In the battle of life woman is too apt to be regarded purely as a competitor with man. Happily there is that in woman's nature whioh renders it impossible for her ever to forget her original charter and commission to be a help-meet.

She bad no difficultyJα securing tl» rightldenly, as Jowett rose from 4fce table, he exto play croquet, or or golf, or to! clwmed, "Good gracious! I'quite forgot to ride a bicycle. She tv there at the start, I P"*-*■ *** itt r °w» *■*« *° sP° n » «°° d .o to .peak, fcven in fcockeV, where it is 0 * * h °* «■} the use of their . , , . '•' . eye*,' it is curious that neither noticed the remed m precUcally » nev game, she has the nea » theT they »fair field. Men anSo, however, at woman's were inking. The Dean was, however, cricket/and Jaogh, good aataredly#,of course, fearfully abeewt-miaded. Osce when he was at her football, A qynic has even gone so driving in Palermo witih a friend, he cornfat a* to contend that the abiding popularity of feeling cold, and ius companion of football with men i» owing to tie fact "W* - ** « 3 ie 1 portmanteau ~..,. . . .' . ~ . , wna him he should put something more on. that their monopoly of xt is not threatened. &tmhj took nofc Women hare not taken to boxing. It « not laughter of the street boy* awoke good for the complexion. But they have StanJeye friend to a sense of the situation tried fencing, and some of them bring down that he realised that the absent-minded Dean their bird on the moon. Both these depar- on iiis night-shint over his coa«. Of tufes have caueed many heads to be shaken. "Walter Savage Landor we know that he a> _~ .j . . „ , . far justified one of his names that ihe -vras Faduon had long «nee aUotted these pa* buiets of temper times to men. iim pi ck np a fowl from the table and thurl it out of the window, simply because it was not cooked as he liked. Freeman, the historian, was another fcad-tempered man of 'Mr Hare's acquaintance, and he quoted with enjoyment the terms in whidh his health was once proposed by ft Dean who hated him. "I rise w*h pleasure," he said, , "to propose the faealth of our eminent neighbour, Mr Freeman;, the 'historian, a man who, in Ms own personal characteristics, has so often depicted for us the savage character of our first forefathers."